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US defence officials stress strategic partnership to help India
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SME Times News Bureau | 07 May, 2021
US defence officials have emphasised the strategic partnership with
India in helping it in the time of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
"The
US Defence Department will continue to stand by India in its moment of
need and support US assistance efforts in the days and weeks ahead,"
Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl told India's Defence
Secretary Ajay Kumar on Thursday, according to Pentagon's Deputy
Spokesperson Jamal Brown.
Kahl and Kumar during their phone
conversation "highlighted the enduring strength of the US-India
strategic partnership, noting that the bonds between the two nations
have only deepened in times of crisis".
"They reiterated their
commitment to working closely with like-minded countries, including
Quadrilateral partners Japan and Australia, to address the defining
challenges of our time,' Brown added.
Defence Secretary Lloyd
Austin spoke about the Department's role in spearheading Washington's
relief efforts for India by delivering supplies from the Travis Air
Force Base in California deploying four of its largest aircraft.
Referring
to the Department's contribution to fighting the pandemic, he said at a
Pentagon news conference: "I should say just a word about the crisis
facing our friends in India. We're moving urgently to support India's
front-line health care workers and three US Air Force C-5M Super
Galaxies and a C-17 Globe Master III have already delivered many tons of
critical supplies."
He said that the Department's "renewed focus
on teamwork on several levels", includes "outreach to our allies and
partners, who multiply our strength and make the world more stable and
secure".
Austin said that that his first overseas trips "were all
about investing in those relationships, including important business
that we've already conducted" with the leaders of partners, including
India.
During his visit to India in March, Austin met Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to strengthen
defence ties between the two countries as India emerges as an important
partner in the US Indo-Pacific strategy.
At his Thursday news conference, Austin highlighted the Indo-Pacific region, where the US directly faces challenges from China.
The
news strategy of "integrated deterrence" that the Pentagon is
developing is "especially important for our priority theatre of
operations, the Indo-Pacific", he said.
He said that integrated
deterrence "is a new vision of how we defend the nation in all domains
of conflict in a time when technology is changing the nature of
warfare".
"We've started a global force posture review to make
sure we're positioned well for the challenges that we face around the
globe, but certainly there in the region as well," Austin said, adding
that the China Task Force "is developing an important set of
recommendations".
Speaking about integrated deterrence last week
during a visit to the Indo-Pacific command headquarters in Hawaii,
Austin said that that military's role is also "to buttress US diplomacy
and advance a foreign policy that employs all of our instruments of
national power".
It also includes developing defences against emerging cyber and space threats, according to the Defence chief.
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